Should New York Be Interested in John Axford?

John Axford was designated for assignment over the weekend and is now a free agent to be had by any team this winter. Axford was originally signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent during the 2006 season and could be on his way back to where his major league career all began. First and foremost let's take a look at Axford's career stats as a relief pitcher because they truly tell the story.

Year	Age	Tm	W	L	ERA	G	GF	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	HBP	ERA+	FIP	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9
2009	26	MIL	0	0	3.52	7	6	1	7.2	5	3	3	0	6	9	0	122	3.10	1.435	5.9	0.0	7.0	10.6
2010	27	MIL	8	2	2.48	50	43	24	58.0	42	17	16	1	27	76	1	163	2.13	1.190	6.5	0.2	4.2	11.8
2011	28	MIL	2	2	1.95	74	63	46	73.2	59	19	16	4	25	86	0	202	2.41	1.140	7.2	0.5	3.1	10.5
2012	29	MIL	5	8	4.67	75	54	35	69.1	61	42	36	10	39	93	2	88	4.06	1.442	7.9	1.3	5.1	12.1
2013	30	TOT	7	7	4.02	75	16	0	65.0	73	32	29	10	26	65	2	97	4.34	1.523	10.1	1.4	3.6	9.0
2013	30	MIL	6	7	4.45	62	13	0	54.2	62	29	27	10	23	54	1	87	4.77	1.555	10.2	1.6	3.8	8.9
2013	30	STL	1	0	1.74	13	3	0	10.1	11	3	2	0	3	11	1	223	2.08	1.355	9.6	0.0	2.6	9.6
2014	31	TOT	2	4	3.95	62	28	10	54.2	43	26	24	6	36	63	2	94	4.34	1.445	7.1	1.0	5.9	10.4
2014	31	CLE	2	3	3.92	49	24	10	43.2	34	21	19	6	30	51	1	96	4.71	1.466	7.0	1.2	6.2	10.5
2014	31	PIT	0	1	4.09	13	4	0	11.0	9	5	5	0	6	12	1	90	2.86	1.364	7.4	0.0	4.9	9.8
162 Game Avg.			5	5	3.40	68	42	23	65	56	28	25	6	32	78	1	117	3.43	1.346	7.8	0.8	4.4	10.7

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table


As you can see Axford has had trouble with his command and his control and averages 4.4 walks per nine innings in his career. Axford makes up for that by missing a ton of bats with a 10.7 K/9 ratio which would fit well into the Yankees bullpen. Axford is far removed from his glory days in the Milwaukee bullpen in 2010, 2011, and 2012  but at this point would be no better than Shawn Kelley or Adam Warren. If the deal came on the cheap I would invest in Axford for the 7th inning and if not I may have to pass, the WHIP, ERA, and walk totals really scare me.